Day 256 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

The diary preserves an assessment that לח״י LEḤI intended to maintain an underground and strike international personnel. The full warning study distinguishes that general threat from knowledge of a specific plan to murder Folke Bernadotte. The estimate of three hundred personnel and possible underground connections within צה״ל ẒAHAL was intelligence reporting, not an audited roster. ¹

The separate discussion of הארגון HAʾIRGUN concerned loyalties of soldiers and military police. דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION ordered scrutiny and preparation of an enforcement plan. No battle between those organizations and the army is established for this day.

JTA reported inauguration of the district court in former Mandatory Supreme Court chambers. יצחק בן־צבי YIẒḤAK BEN-ẒVI and בנימין לוי BINYAMIN LEVI called for the city to be proclaimed the state’s capital. Their speeches are evidence of an aim; they are not a formal government declaration. The report also describes a new council whose first meeting was still prospective. ²

Bernadotte arranged repairs to the לטרון LATRUN pumping station, expecting restoration within two days. No personnel were available to guard an installation considered under UN supervision. The destruction that night belongs to the August 11–12 interval, on the next Hebrew date. The August 12 bulletin’s forecast of water in forty-eight hours cannot establish actual restoration. ^{3 4}

The retrospective pipeline study dates a separate line’s inauguration to August 11, while a later diary proves water flowing by August 13. The pipeline study retains that distinction and the conflicting press opening date.

This is Day 256 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-08-11. Its daily recap route is ו׳ באב ה׳תש״ח 6th 𝑜𝑓 Av, AM 5708, the register’s daytime Hebrew conversion. Events after local sunset belong to ז׳ באב ה׳תש״ח 7th 𝑜𝑓 Av, AM 5708; the recap’s route does not assign every episode to the same Hebrew day. The threat briefing and court report belong to August 11. The Latrun explosion that night falls on 7 Av, the next route. ⁵

• What institutions did sovereign authority require beyond winning a battlefield engagement?
• Why must a forecast of repaired water service remain separate from successful delivery?